This is pretty scary because it looks like the path of Gustav takes it right into New Orleans.

What is truly scary is hearing the mayor of New Orleans try to explain that they're ready this time. He was also having trouble explaining why it was necessary to guarantee the right of return to any potential evacuees. There are still evacuees from Katrina that have not been allowed to return. Heard him stammer through his double talk on the news on Nova M radio, while driving today.

_________________“I'm not a member of any organized party. I'm a Democrat.”-Will Rogers

I'll bring the scary thermometer's mercury up a bit, APL. Consider the very real fact that the same president who made such a mess of FEMA's response to Katrina is still at the helm...it's not likely the Bush administration's response will be any better IF Gustav should turn out to be as big as Katrina. They're probably hoping it'll just totally erase the Big Easy....

[url=http://climate.weather.com/articles/gustavevacuation01.html?from=hp_news]In New Orleans, no shelter for those who stay[/url]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own.

New forecasts Friday made it increasingly clear that New Orleans will get some kind of hit -- direct or indirect -- by early next week. That raised the likelihood people would have to flee, and the city suggested a full-scale evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday.

Those among New Orleans' estimated 310,000 to 340,000 residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, has warned.

As Katrina approached in 2005, as many as 30,000 people who either could not or would not evacuate jammed the Louisiana Superdome and the riverfront convention center. They spent days waiting for rescue in squalid conditions. Some died.

Stung by the images that flashed across the world, including the photo of an elderly woman dead in her wheelchair, her bodied covered with a blanket, officials promised to find a better way.

This time, the city has taken steps to ensure no one has an excuse not to leave. The state has a $7 million contract to provide 700 buses to evacuate the elderly, the sick and anyone around the region without transportation.

Officials also plan to announce a curfew that will mean the arrest of anyone still on the streets after a mandatory evacuation order goes out. Police will roam neighborhoods urging residents to flee, and officials will text-message residents with major storm developments. In addition, the city will reach out to churches, hoping to spread the word about where the buses will pick up evacuees.

In an effort to keep track of where people go after they leave the city, officials plan to give evacuees bar-coded bracelets containing their ID.

Still, advocates for the poor worried that the message would not get to the city's most marginalized residents -- and that could spell disaster.

"It's an enormous concern, an extraordinary concern" for day laborers, the homeless, renters and public-housing residents, said Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. "Hundreds if not thousands will fall through the cracks of an evacuation plan, and they will be left in the city, not out of choice but out of necessity."

Gustav strengthened into a hurricane Friday and appeared to stay on track to hit the Cayman Islands, then western Cuba before moving into the warm waters of the Gulf bound for the U.S. coastline early next week. At 5 p.m. EDT, Gustav's center was about 100 miles east of Grand Cayman, and the storm had top sustained winds of 75 mph.

There's a hurricane out there... he's a Cat 3 right now and is expected to become a Cat 4 upon reaching the Gulf... and maybe even higher... I have a really bad feeling about this... and here is why...

Remember the James Dobson idiot who tried to rally the evangelicals to pray for rain on Obama during his acceptance speech? I think I posted a thread about that here... I know I have elsewhere... well... according to wiccans, when someone wishes for harm to befall another, that harm is visited upon them three fold...

Nagin... purrsonally I like the man and he tried to help his city last time around but... got absolutely no help from the feds, from the idiot in chief partying up with McLame to chertoff getting his news from the newspaper to brownie primping in front of the camera, it was one huge clusterfu**...

Why in heaven's name did the federal government wait five days to send help? What in hell were they waiting for? A written invitation? Sorry, mail service has been disrupted... A phone call? sorry all lines are down...

The feds dropped the ball big time...

This time around, however, it is an election year... so expect McLame to be all over it as well as the chief quacker, bush...

No matter where you live.... you might want to fill your cars with gas as I expect the prices to skyrocket just like they did when Katrina roared ashore... the oil companies made their first sets of record profits off that storm... I can see them rubbing their hands again in anticipation...

They were waiting for the cake to be baked, decorated, and the photo op to be done, Stripey!

Thanks for the WICCAN update about trying to get a "dirty" done on someone else, too...I'd never heard it, but I am like you...SHOCKED!

How much do you want to bet that the RNC will go right ahead as planned? Again, while the Big Easy is in danger of drowning, the Rethugs will be making merry...just like in 2005.

I have friends who are leaving Metairie, LA tomorrow morning and heading for northern Mississippi. I hope they arrive safely and that when they go back home, their home will still be there.

While the people of the Gulf Coast make their escape, I hope they make arrangements for their pets to be protected, too. Animals and old people...they seem to get the short end of the stick in situations like this.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Au contraire cat my dear, the rethugs will be... dare I say it... johnny on the spot this time around... it's an election year after all... gotta make the masses believe they care about them...

good ol Johnny "party boy" Mcshameful and the beauty queen from way up north... (sayyyyyyyyyy, what does cindy say about that new fox in the hen house?) will be down in the area within the first three days...

I read an odd little piece last night on an obscure little site that I never heard of. I thought that it was odd till I really thought about it.
I'll post it here because it is kind of related to this though it is not about the storm itself. This really makes sense.

Blackwater Gearing Up for Hurricane Gustav
Blackwater Worldwide is currently seeking qualified law enforcement officers and security personnel to potentially deploy to provide security in the possible aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. This is the first time Blackwater has mobilized under its controversial Homeland Security contracts. Blackwater did deploy security personnel to assist New Orleans in wake of Hurricane Katrina and this resulted in great controversy since it was the first time a private military corporation had deployed on US soil.

Blackwater issued the following call for personnel late Friday afternoon:

Blackwater is compiling a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav.
Applicants must meet all items listed under the respective Officer posting and be US citizens. Contract length is TBD.

Law Enforcement Officers (all criteria must apply)

1. Current sworn [may be full time, part time or reserve]

2. With arrest powers

3. Armed status (must indicate Armed and/or Semi Auto. Revolver only not accepted)
expiration must be greater than 60 days out

2. All training verification [unarmed and armed certificates of completion]

3. Current state issued face card indicting armed status [expiration must be greater than 60 days out]

Applicants will be required to provide an electronic copy of the above required credentials/documents, recent photo within
the last six months with response to this AD prior to consideration for deployment.